In the October 25th issue of The New York Review of Books

[NeverTrumpDemocrat]

4. He's not even a Hitler. He's just a wannabe tinpot dictator.

Compare him to actual tinpot dictators at most -- Lukashenko in Belarus, Berdimuhamedow in Turkmenistan, men like that.

That's the best way to understand him.

The Hitler comparisons are lazy, tendentious and most importantly misguided. Trump has some talent for self-promotion, learned from his father and practiced his whole life. And he is a pretty competent divider -- but causing division in today's America is not that difficult if you put your mind to it.

He's a mobbed-up real estate kid who wants to be a Putin -- who's not much more than a tinpot dictator himself when it comes down to it.

Trump's incredibly damaging and dangerous for America's future trajectory, but reading everything as Weimar always is a lazy reflex.